Desalination May Save Shrinking Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee, where the Bible says Jesus walked on water, is drying up along with the springs and streams that feed it—and Israel is looking to desalination to restore it.

Israel is expected to approve plans in the next two months for two new desalination plants and the expansion of five existing ones to bolster the country’s freshwater supplies, some of which will be used to replenish the sea, Yuval Steinitz, minister of national infrastructure, energy and water resources, told Bloomberg Environment.

The new facilities would double Israel’s annual desalination capacity to about 1.2 billion cubic meters (317 million gallons) by 2030 and, for the first time, earmark supplies for nature preserves, agriculture, threatened springs and streams, and the inland Sea of Galilee.